With the 2018 draft and first month of the offseason in the books, franchises around the league created a fascinating and complex web of protected first round picks in the 2019 draft. This year’s obligations stand out because a vast majority of them are specific and unusual, with no unprotected selections and only one straightforward lottery protection out of the eight outstanding obligations.

Since pick protection helps explain team behavior, even though most of that movement comes at the end of seasons, it is good to take stock of the current obligations around the league.

RealGM’s thorough pick protection page has detailed information on all outstanding obligations and protections but here are the owed first round selections for the 2019 NBA Draft listed in order of importance:

Dallas: Retain if 1-5 (otherwise it goes to Atlanta): This starts this season’s list as the most important protection partially because the stakes are so high. The Mavericks...